Closer
by momoxtoshiro
Summary: Yozora suffers another spell from her illness of being unable to deal with crowds and Kodaka assists her. Fluff :3 enjoy


**Ah, yes I have now wandered over to the BokuTomo corner of the anime Fanfiction archive. I mean, I just couldn't resist X3 Kodaka and Yozora is my favorite pairing but I must say I like Sena too :3**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai :(**

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><p>Closer<p>

Kodaka Hasegawa groggily trudged to his classroom, hardly even noticing the way his classmates scuttled away in fright of his doubly frightening eyes.

Aside from the usual demeanor of his face that scared the other students off, this morning, his eyes were downcast with dreary sleep shadows. He had been awoken earlier than usual that morning due to Kobato having a nightmare. She had woken up whimpering in her room so pitifully that he had heard from his own room and had gone to console her. At the expense of his own precious half hour of slumber, Kodaka had lulled his little sister back to sleep for that amount of time before he had to get up for good.

Thus, his sister had gotten nicely rested, and he had to suffer a slightly gloomier morning. However, when he saw the peaceful look on her face as she fell asleep, he knew right then and there that it had been entirely worth it.

Therefore, he sighed heavily and took his seat, taking no heed of the students around him sliding their desks away from his. He was just significantly relieved that today was a half day, a rare gift at Chronica's Academy. In addition, there was no Neighbor's Club meeting either, and the school had given permission for all students to return directly home, considering it was nearly the holidays.

The first class period would only be a very short amount of time before they were all called down to the auditorium for the assembly, so he decided to try and take a short nap before class officially began.

As he rested his head on his desk, his mean-looking eyes shifted around the room and unconsciously came to rest on the one familiar figure he could recognize on instant.

Yozora Mikazuki sat at her desk a row away and several desks in front of him. Kodaka would often space out during class and find his eyes locked on her for no apparent reason, most likely because she was the closest thing he had to a friend within the entire school. After constantly looking at her back, he came to observe precisely how she went about things, down to the slightest flip of that long, silky, onyx hair over her shoulder.

This was why he was presently puzzled to find her acting a bit more strangely than usual. Her posture was a bit too straightened, so much so that it was borderline unnatural, as though she were anticipating someone to come up from behind and pounce on her. And he could not help noticing how her hands, which were usually lazily folded on her desk or limply lying in her lap, were now fiddling nervously with one another.

_I wonder what's up with her?_ He blinked, watching her fidgeting shoulders shift. Kodaka was overcome with the urge to get up and approach her, ask what was bothering her, but his body felt a tad too tired to move just yet. _I'll ask her at the assembly..._ He decided, letting his eyes fall closed for a few moments, not realizing when his teacher entered and began addressing the class about the upcoming assembly.

He faded in and out of consciousness before he heard the clanking of metal chairs sliding across the floor and the sounds of bodies shifting, the chatter of the class as they broke up into their typical groups of friends and began heading out into the hallway. _Crap. I gotta get up and go to that assembly before Sensei yells at me..._ He told himself, not fully intending to take his own advice and get up, but before he could push himself up from his seat, he heard a pair of footsteps approach nearby.

"Oy, Kodaka." His eyes flew open when he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder. However, Yozora obviously had not expected him to be awake, and so when he suddenly straightened up without warning, she jumped in surprise and recoiled her hand as though it had been bitten. "K-Kodaka!" She gasped, before clearing her throat and regaining her composure as fast as it had crumbled. "Y-You were awake?"

"Ah, yeah. Sort of." He yawned, slowly getting to his feet. He stretched his arms a bit as Yozora titled her head slightly to one side.

"Didn't sleep last night?" She guessed.

"Well, only this morning." He shrugged. "But after that catnap I feel a lot better. What about you?" He asked after a slight pause.

"Huh? M-Me? What's wrong with me?" She would have sounded convincing had her voice not been so skittish.

"You're definitely up to something." He stated matter-of-factly.

"What? I'm not _up _to anything. We don't even have club today..." she trailed off, lowering her gorgeous violet eyes, making him seek them out all the more. The loneliness he had heard in her voice pained him slightly, so he did his best to cheer her up a bit.

"Well there's always Saturday, so don't let it get to you. Come on, let's get down to the auditorium so we can get good seats." He offered, taking the lead across the room and heading toward the door. But he stopped when he realized she was not following and he turned back with a confused expression. "Hey. You coming?"

"A-Ah yes!" She piped up, visibly forcing her legs to move toward him. Kodaka's eyes narrowed. He wanted to question her further, but decided it would probably be better to keep his mouth closed for now.

As the two walked down to the gymnasium, Kodaka caught a glimpse of strikingly bright blonde hair and a flash of ocean blue amongst the crowd of students shuffling in. Sena saw him too, and she waved and pushed her way over to him.

"Kodaka!" She chirped with a huge smile. "Ah, I can't wait to get home early for once!"

"Tell me about it." He smiled.

As his eyes flicked around, he noticed Maria and Yukimura already seated together in the bleachers. He assumed Rika was still in her special, secluded science lab; _Probably for everyone's own good._ He reasoned.

As he shuffled through the entranceway of the gym amongst the other students, he found that the tightly-compact area around him thinned out quickly due to his intimidating countenance. "Ah, crap." He suddenly muttered and Sena cocked her head to one side in puzzlement. "I lost Yozora." He explained, a bit regretfully since he was still slightly troubled by her behavior that morning.

"Baka Yozora? She's here?" Sena sounded surprised and Kodaka was about to ask why that was so, when they were both taken aback by a loudly obnoxious announcement from the gymnasium, yelling at the students to take their seats in the bleachers faster. "Geez, these teachers are so annoying. Come on, let's see if we can find her before we get swept away by the mob."

He felt Sena grasp his arm as she pulled him through the congested gymnasium, yet by the time they had gotten seats in the bleachers, it had been far too late to search for Yozora, because more students poured in between them all. As they began to settle down, Kodaka searched in vain for the girl whom he had instigated into creating the most pathetic club in school. He was willing to just shrug their separation off as a unfortunate turn of events, however the way Sena kept glancing around with a slightly nervous flicker made him uneasy. Yet before they could decide what further actions to take, the booming voice of the announcer had the two blondes taking seats at the edge of the crowd without having located their companion.

"Oh well." Kodaka sighed. "Maybe we'll find her at the end."

"Yeah..." Sena mumbled absent-mindedly.

"I just can't get over how much this seating arrangement reflects our social lives." He grumbled, looking disdainfully at the rest of the student body, all closely compacted within their own circles of friends. This comment earned a small giggle from Sena, and the two momentarily forgot about the abandoned Yozora and focused on the assembly.

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><p>After nearly two hours, during which time each teenager felt like they were about to either keel over from sheer boredom or pass out due to the soreness of sitting on the hard surfaces for so long, they were all relieved when the assembly was called to an end.<p>

Kodaka blinked his eyes as though he had been staring at a computer screen for a full day and stretched his arms above his head as the people around him began to dart for the door and the freedom beyond it.

"So," he felt obliged to mention the presentation they had just witnessed. "What did you think about it?" Turning to his side, he realized that he may as well have been speaking to a wall, for Sena was fast asleep with her head dropped forward slightly. "Oy." Kodaka nudged her with his elbow and she slumped for a second before flailing about and sputtering.

"H-H-Hah? What did I think of what?" She slurred, trying to focus her bleary eyes on him. "Oh. That? Yeah, it was...great?" She snickered and he joined in. "Well at least we can go home now." Getting to her feet, Sena stretched briefly before Kodaka joined her.

The other teens were beginning to thin out as more and more filed through the doors, and Kodaka was about to follow them when he heard Sena call his name.

"Kodaka, wait!" She called out over the din of voices. He turned back to see her staring toward the bleachers and followed her gaze until his eyes rested upon a familiar figure.

Yozora was the only person left sitting, and the people around her jumped off the bleachers, rudely bumping into her without apology.

"Jerks." He growled, starting to make his way over to her, following Sena.

Only when he drew near enough did he notice why Sena was running so fast.

Yozora was hunched over with her arms folded tightly around her stomach, her head in her lap. However, it did not appear that she had simply fallen asleep during the drawn-out assembly.

_Yozora? What the hell..._

"Yozora!" Sena cried out as she reached the other girl. "Hey! W-What's wrong?" She placed a hand on her back, but Yozora did not so much as flinch, let alone acknowledge her friends' arrivals. Kodaka caught up to her and stared down at the Neighbor's Club president and knew instantly that she was unwell. He looked around for a teacher, but the gymnasium had already cleared aside from himself and the girls. "Yozora!" Sena urged again. "Hey!" She shook her shoulder gently, but firmly, and the motion seemed to snap the onyx-haired girl out of her trance for a moment. With a painful slowness, Yozora straightened her slumped back just enough to lift her face out of her skirt.

"M...Meat...Kodaka..." she rasped, so scratchily that Kodaka winced. Her face was whiter than a sheet, and the bright violet eyes from earlier that day were now bleak and hollow with fatigue and pain.

"Hey, what the hell's going on?" The boy sat on her side opposite Sena. "You seemed fine this morning."

"Yeah, but don't you remember that time at the pool?" Sena reminded him. "She can't do crowds."

At her words, Kodaka felt as though he had been punched in the face with the obvious. _Of course! How the hell could I forget? Man I'm such an idiot! That's also probably why Rika wasn't here._

"But...But how come the teachers let you come to these things? Do they know about your illness?" He queried.

"S...Some of the teachers know." Yozora admitted. "But I normally just keep to the sides of the crowds and I'm usually alright. But t-today I got mixed up in the middle..." her voice trailed off with a bit of a gag, as though she were forcing down bile from her throat. "S-Sorry, you guys. I'll be fine if I just sit here for a while. You should go ho-ah!" She cut off suddenly with a whimper of pain and doubled over again, burying her face once more.

"Yozora!" Her two friends cried in unison, both reaching forward to support her. She coughed harshly before moaning a sigh.

"Do you think the nurse is still here?" Kodaka addressed Sena.

"I don't know." She fretted. "Papa gave a shortened day to the staff as well." Just then, her ocean-blue eyes flashed with alarm as she gasped. "Oh, I forgot! I have to get home right away today because we're supposed to be going away this weekend!" Her eyes filled with turmoil as she glanced from the boy to her sick friend and back again.

Kodaka was slightly touched by her concern for her companion, and the realization that the Neighbor's Club's members were actually closer than their daily activities let on made him give a small smile.

"That's okay. You get going then. I'll see if I can get her to rest or something." He reassured her.

"B-But..." the girl protested, glancing down at Yozora again.

"I'll text you if something happens, okay?" He promised.

Sena seemed to consider his words for a moment, her expression lightened a bit at the thought of having him mail her. With one last worried glance down at the other girl, Sena sighed heavily.

"Okay. Make sure you text me, got it? I'm going to be freaking out. Here, I'll help you get her up." She offered, slipping her arm around Yozora's back. "Come on, Baka Yozora, try to stand up." She urged good-naturedly. Kodaka too, wrapped his arm around Yozora's waist and together they slowly pulled her up. She sucked in a hard breath when a jabbing pain shot through her stomach and reached her head.

Gradually, they got her up on her feet, but her legs were trembling so much that she could hardly balance and had to lean her weight on them for support. Together, the three of them made their ways down the bleachers until they had reached the solid gym floor.

"So now what?" Sena wondered anxiously, obviously needing to get going soon.

"I was just gonna take her to the nurse's office to rest even if she's not there."

"That sounds best. The school won't close for about another hour anyway since the janitors need to clean up." She agreed, then her brow furrowed. "But...I-"

"I know you have to go, so go ahead." Kodaka insisted with a smile. "Thanks a lot for your help, Sena. I'll text you."

"Okay." She nodded. Carefully, she slipped away from Yozora, leaving Kodaka to support all of her weight. "You'd better be okay, Baka Yozora." She crossed her arms and glowered down at the other girl.

"Thanks, but I don't need your concern, Meat." Yozora grinned with a spark of her old spirit in her eyes as she lifted her head.

The two girls smirked at one another with a mutual understanding before Sena straightened up and addressed Kodaka again.

"Right then. I'll be waiting for your text, Kodaka!" She called over her shoulder as she dashed off.

"Sure thing!" His voice echoed after her as she disappeared down the hallway. There was a moment of silence as he adjusted his grip on Yozora, and she did her best to stand on her own two feet. "Alright. Let's head to the nurse's office."

"Okay..." she tried to make her voice sound more resilient than he knew it was, and they began walking at a slow pace. She limped at his side down the deserted hallway for as long as she could manage before the pain in her stomach was too much for her. "Kodaka!" She gasped. "H...Hold on a second...p-please..." she begged, slumping toward him.

"Oh, sure!" He exclaimed, instantly ceasing in his tracks to give her a moment to rest. "Why didn't you say something sooner?" He sighed. "Don't wait until it gets this bad." He pleaded, pained at having to see her suffer. "What even happens to you when you're in a crowd? You're not claustrophobic, are you?"

"N...No. The doctor I went to when it first started said it wasn't that, otherwise I couldn't attend this school. What I have is just...apparently being around a lot of people so closely compact makes me sick and then..." she trailed off, letting her headache speak for her.

"Okay, hey, just take it easy." He said, tightening his hold around her waist. "Take deep, slow breaths."

Yozora tried her best to follow his advice, closing her eyes momentarily to focus on her breathing. After a few moments, her sharp, panting breaths became slower and deeper, until at last she exhaled a sigh.

"I'm okay." She told him, reopening her stunning violet eyes. Kodaka found himself staring into them a little longer than necessary before he shook himself out of it.

"Right. We're almost there." He informed her, taking the lead again and heading toward the desired room.

After what seemed an eternity, they made it into the nurse's office and Kodaka helped her limp over to one of the beds. He then helped her sit down before letting go of her arm and dropping his own arm from her waist and sat beside her. "Do you feel any better?" He wondered.

"It's not as bad as before...but..." she trailed off again as a throbbing assaulted her chest and she hissed through gritted teeth.

"Deep breaths!" He repeated, resting his hand on her back. A pitiful whimpering sound escaped her lips, and he began to trace soothing circles with his palm. After a few moments, Yozora's tense shoulders relaxed and she let out another long sigh.

"Thanks, Kodaka." She said gratefully before her eyes fell. "I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"Don't even go there!" He scolded lightly. "How could I just leave you there like that? You know I'm always happy to help you out." He smiled down at her sincerely. Yozora felt frozen at his stare for reasons unknown to her, and her mind brought back instances they had spent together in their childhood. She felt the blood rush to her face and quickly ducked her head.

"Hey, are you okay? Your face looks red."

"I'm fine." She stopped him before he could question her further.

"If you're sure." He smiled helplessly at her. "But you should at least rest for a bit."

"H-Here? Right now?" She stammered.

"Unless you'd prefer the floor."

"B...But...I..." she failed to form the words she needed as she attempted to avoid his eyes, so close to her own.

"It's fine. The school won't be closed for another hour or so. And I'll stay here to keep an eye on you if you need anything." He offered with a smile that sent her heart thumping harder and faster than it usually did.

"W-Whatever!" She said quickly, trying to speed things along, but mainly to get him a little farther away from herself. She shifted her feet and slid off her shoes before slowly pulling her legs up onto the bed.

Kodaka took the hint and got to his feet so she could access the sheets and pillow. He crossed the room and closed the door to give her some privacy, even though he would likely still be in the room with her.

When he had turned back around, Yozora had slid under the sheets and grasped them tightly. When she caught his eye, she quickly flipped over onto her side with her back facing him.

"Hey." He made his way over to her and sat in a small rolling chair nearby that he assumed would be the nurse's. He reached forward and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her toward him onto her back. She held back a yelp of surprise as he did so.

"W-What is it?"

"Kobato did the same thing whenever she was sick and I told her the same thing; you should sleep on your back. It'll be easier to breathe." He stated.

"Oh...I see." She blinked, quickly flicking her eyes up to the ceiling.

"Try to get some sleep." He soothed.

She was about to take his advice when he suddenly reached forward and began pulling the sheets up over her shoulders. Yozora froze like a petrified deer until he was finished and took his seat again, and she let out the breath she had not realized she had been holding.

"You're not in pain anymore?" He checked.

"Not really." She replied.

"Good." He smiled with relief and Yozora could not help but do the same. She took a deep breath before letting her eyelids fall shut.

At first, she was too self-conscious to even consider falling asleep in front of him. Yet after several moments, his presence near hers began to feel natural, and soon afterward, she was asleep.

When Kodaka noticed her breathing become slower and deeper, he let out a sigh of relief. "Well that's good. I should probably text Sena." He pulled out his cell phone and texted that everything was fine. Sena responded a moment later with a smiling cat face.

Kodaka chuckled before yawning and found himself a tad drowsy. _It can't help to take a quick nap with her. _He decided. Setting an alarm on his phone for an hour from then, he folded his arms on the bed and rested his head at Yozora's side.

As he let himself fade into the realm of slumber to the sound of her steady breathing, Kodaka could not help but feel that he and Yozora had grown a bit closer that day.

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><p><strong>AN: Hope you enjoyed it! I tried to keep everyone in-character without messing with the original story. And yes, I even had them call one another 'friends' something they seem totally oblivious to in the anime and manga. Hehe.**

**Please review!**


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